Sports

Confidence high as Cañon City Tigers try to improve on poor season

Senior Lucas Teigen goes up for a lay up during practice on Tuesday. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

Gunner Javernick shoots during Cañon City Tigers basketball practice on Tuesday at CCHS. The Tigers believe they'll dramatically be able to improve on last year's 4-19 season. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

For a team coming off a 4-19 season, the Cañon City Tigers are awfully confident.

They have a third-year starter and leading scorer in Gunner Javernick, and he's joined by Trenton Stringari, Jared Mews and Wesley Jaynes who earned some starts last year. The team has a total of eight seniors on the team.

The 2012-'13 record only shows the gist of it, but the hidden gems are what gives the team hope. CCHS held opponents to 57 points per game, and it suffered seven losses by six points or less. Second-year head coach Greg Baxter said he felt there were only two games all season that the Tigers didn't have a chance to win in the second half.

"Some of it was a new coaching staff," Baxter said on Tuesday. "... If I had done a better job we could probably turn (a few) of those games. This year, we talked about those little things that could add up to postseason play."

The Tigers averaged just 48 points per game and were turnover-prone.

On Deck

Here's the Cañon City Tigers boys basketball team's early season schedule.

Dec. 2: Cañon City vs. Woodland Park, 7 p.m.

Dec. 4: Cañon City vs. Widefield, 7 p.m.

Dec. 11: Cañon City @ Ponderosa, Ponderosa tournament

Dec. 13: Cañon City @ Ponderosa tournament

Dec. 14: Cañon City @ Ponderosa tournament

Baxter doesn't see a reason the Tigers can't compete for a top-three spot in the South-Central League. Last year, the Tigers were 0-10 in league, but played teams close.

"We're going to embrace it, that's who we are right now," Baxter said about last year's poor season. "That's where we're coming from, and I think everybody that was involved last year just recognizes we need continue to work hard. But I think everybody also sees we're not that far away."

"We've got to prepare for everything," Javernick said. "Last year, we were really confident going in, and it didn't go our way. We were in so many of our games."

The team will begin its season Dec. 2 when it hosts Woodland Park. After a game against Widefield, the Tigers will go to a tournament in Ponderosa.